Dumb Question, Why is the bow height so low to the water?

[RID22]

I don't understand why my RZ4 bow is so low to the water. I've dunked it a handful of times now. I'm to the point where I can't allow adults in the bow or I dunk it. I know tige boats have this problem much less than other manufacturers, but why can't they just raise it up a couple inch's?

I'm not the best driver, but I know how to avoid dunking the boat. When I turn around to pick up a surfer I have to make a huge circle and make sure no adults are in the bow. Otherwise, it's scoop city! Even with my front ballast tanks empty. I do boat on a very rough lake, however it's usually my own wake that I plow into. It's a fairly important issue for Wakeboard boat manufacturers, why don't they just raise the bows a little?

[xpjim1]

When My surfer goes down, I put the boat in nuetral and turn to the right for my goofy footed surfers. I let the wave go by and then I go back to the surfer. I do the same thing when pulling boarders. Its a pain with the big wave to try to just turn and get them. You are asking for water over the bow.

[RID22]

I would like to do that, but our lake is nuts. I'll take a picture next time I'm out. I'll have two or three boats directly behind me pulling other skiers or wake boarders. You have to race back and block boats from hitting the person in the water. No joke!!! That's why I only buy a 24ft boat and keep hoping tige builds a 26 or 28. Every other lake is much further away and slightly less crowded.

When I turn around and race back to block other boats, I have to kill my cruise control and turn away from the weighted side of the wake. The new tige cruise doesn't have any preset settings so I have to leave the surfer in the water while I reset the cruise. It's really annoying me. It would be a huge help if the cruise had presets.

[Moki]

I don't understand why my RZ4 bow is so low to the water. I've dunked it a handful of times now. I'm to the point where I can't allow adults in the bow or I dunk it. I know tige boats have this problem much less than other manufacturers, but why can't they just raise it up a couple inch's?

My guess is that they are lower to the water to provide better visibility for the driver. So far, I have been able to avoid taking on water over the bow for the most part. You have to wait as Jim pointed out and when going through a large wave, you need to accelerate to keep the bow up. If you slow down before a big wave, your bow will dip even further.

[xpjim1]

I hear you on the crowded lakes. Thats why I changed my boating days to avoid most of the crowds. I know when we race back to the rider we have the same wave issue. Same reason we went from the 20V to the 24V.

[ragboy]

I don't understand why my RZ4 bow is so low to the water. I've dunked it a handful of times now. I'm to the point where I can't allow adults in the bow or I dunk it. I know tige boats have this problem much less than other manufacturers, but why can't they just raise it up a couple inch's?

I'm not the best driver, but I know how to avoid dunking the boat. When I turn around to pick up a surfer I have to make a huge circle and make sure no adults are in the bow. Otherwise, it's scoop city! Even with my front ballast tanks empty. I do boat on a very rough lake, however it's usually my own wake that I plow into. It's a fairly important issue for Wakeboard boat manufacturers, why don't they just raise the bows a little?

For the most part, I turn right, and wait, 90 deg to waves, and let them roll by broadside then I go to pick up. However, when you have to go back quick, when rider goes down, turn on the speedset. pull throttle up and turn right use the power to raise the bow and get over the waves without dunking. This doesn't work when speedset is still on, because it won't let you go over 10 or 11 or whatever. I hope that helps, thats what I do when I have to get back quick. Surfing is tough though, because if you weight the boat, the wake is huge.

[Wake Bandits]

So you can see on coming boat traffic.
Some boats look ridiculous with their nost in the air,, the drive has to sit on a stack of vests or stand up to see over.

We like the Tige.

[Razzman]

The bow is low for visibility reasons. When we have a surfer go down , we stop, hit reverse for a sec to stop forward motion and then turn around non-surf side.

[Timmy!]

When your surfer goes down and you are just about to come to a stop, turn the opposite side that you will be going to turn to get your surfer and then wait for the rollers and then turn and pick them up. Since we started doing that, we haven't taken water over the bow ever again!

Also, since the lake is crazy, tell the surfer to hold their board up sticking out of the water so the other boats can see them - I have done that a few times and seen a few boats take a hard turn because they didn't see me until then.

[bentone]

i do what timmy does other than i crank the wheel opposite of the direction i turn around before i throttle down to turn around, wait a second for the wave to catch the back corner of the boat, it will kick the back end of the boat on an angle to where you crank the wheel the other way and give it the juice, you will be heading straight back the direction you were coming from and clearing the wave that will surely dunk you bow everytime.

[dogbert]

Also, since the lake is crazy, tell the surfer to hold their board up sticking out of the water so the other boats can see them - I have done that a few times and seen a few boats take a hard turn because they didn't see me until then.

This is the best thing to do. Avoid power turns otherwise you are contributing to the problem. Lake Austin gets like your lake. We usually just wait until there's fewer boats or move to a different spot. Also, use a skier down flag...it's bright and tends to get people's attention. Bright life jackets help as well.

But, there's always a moron who's looking behind them when they drive and sometimes you do have to do that blocking maneuver.

Nuckin' Futs, it may have something to do with your mesmerizing graphics. Quite frankly, I don't know how any one could miss seeing your boat.

[talltigeguy]

When I turn around and race back to block other boats, I have to kill my cruise control and turn away from the weighted side of the wake. The new tige cruise doesn't have any preset settings so I have to leave the surfer in the water while I reset the cruise. It's really annoying me. It would be a huge help if the cruise had presets.

So once the Tige speed set is on, you cannot throttle it? With my perfect pass, I can throttle it briefly before PP takes over and tries to slow me down.

Surfing for me is not a calm water sport, so I just make a loop (power turn) and have never, ever taken water over the bow while moving. The bow rise is enough to go over even double up surf wakes if I am going 11 MPH. You get water in the bow when crossing your own wake?

[hoopykat]

Daily Thought: Some people are like slinkies, not really good for anything, but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

HAHAHA....

That's hilarious!

[T-Pokes]

I totally dumped water on my dressed father in law doing the same thing in our RZ2 !! I just thought I was retarded -- turning to get a surfer as well, we are new to driving so everyones answers are helping,, but the same thing happen to me... I was driving, surfer went down I turned to pick up and I couldn't excellerate pass 9,8 cuz the cruise set and then it happend that giant surf wake we were putting off came right over the bow!! but now I just stop turn the cruise off, turn and excellerate--so far so good, I think the waiting for sec helps and then being able to throttle up, but it sounds like it also helps if you turn a certain direction depending on what side they are surfing on??
huh
thanks

[dogbert]

Surfing is really no different than wakeboarding, so the same techniques apply, except that the boat doesn't handle as well. The key is to let the wake pass you by so by the time you're heading back, there's no rollers to take over the bow. It will also solve the issue with the speedset because you're really just at lock-forward speed or just a bit above.

T-Pokes, I'm sure you didn't soak your father-in-law on purpose

Anyways, it sounds like Tige included some power turn prevention in their design For those chronic power turners, don't worry, we've set up a support group for you.

BTW, I thought it was supposed to be impossible to sink the bow of an RZ2? Is that sorta like not needing ballast (Tige marketing)?